Edit a commit message in SourceTree Windows already pushed to remote

Question

How do I edit an incorrect commit message in SourceTree without touching the command line   Additional details    This is not the latest commit  Everything was already pushed to Bitbucket  This is a private repository and I am the only collaborator  I don t mind losing any of the previous commits  as I can re-commit them anytime  I don t want however to lose any code modification ever made    Outcome    As it seems impossible at the moment according to your comments and replies  I m going to create a new repository and start all over  Thanks all for your help

User · Accepted Answer

Here are the steps to edit the commit message of a previous commit (which is not the most recent commit) using SourceTree for Windows version 1.5.2.0:

Step 1

Select the commit immediately before the commit that you want to edit. For example, if I want to edit the commit with message "FOOBAR!" then I need to select the commit that comes right before it:

Selecting commit before the one that I want to edit.

Step 2

Right-click on the selected commit and click Rebase children...interactively:

Selecting "Rebase children interactively".

Step 3

Select the commit that you want to edit, then click Edit Message at the bottom. In this case, I'm selecting the commit with the message "FOOBAR!":

Select the commit that you want to edit.

Step 4

Edit the commit message, and then click OK. In my example, I've added "SHAZBOT! SKADOOSH!"

Edit the commit message

Step 5

When you return to interactive rebase window, click on OK to finish the rebase:

Click OK to finish.

Step 6

At this point, you'll need to force-push your new changes since you've rebased commits that you've already pushed. However, the current 1.5.2.0 version of SourceTree for Windows does not allow you to force-push through the GUI, so you'll need to use Git from the command line anyways in order to do that.

Click Terminal from the GUI to open up a terminal.

Click Terminal

Step 7

From the terminal force-push with the following command,

git push origin <branch> -f

where <branch> is the name of the branch that you want to push, and -f means to force the push. The force push will overwrite your commits on your remote repo, but that's OK in your case since you said that you're not sharing your repo with other people.

That's it! You're done!

User · Answer

Update  Note  this answer was originally written with regard to older versions of SourceTree for Windows  and is now out-of-date   See my new answer for the current version of SourceTree for Windows  1 5 2 0  I m leaving this answer behind for historical purposes   Original Answer     as I m on Windows I don t have a command line tool nor do I know how to use one    Is it the only way to get that sorted out  The GUI doesn t cover all the git s functions   mdash  Original Poster   Regarding Git GUIs  no  they don t cover all of Git s functions  They don t even come close  I suggest you check out one of the answers in How do I edit an incorrect commit message in Git   Git is flexible enough that there are multiple solutions   from the command line   SourceTree might actually come with the msysgit bash shell already  or it might be able to use the standard Windows command shell   Either way  you open it up form SourceTree by clicking the Terminal button     You set which terminal SourceTree uses  bash or Windows  here     One way to solve the problem in SourceTree  That being said  here s one way you can do it in SourceTree  Since you mentioned in the comments that you don t mind  reverting back to the faulty commit   by which I assume you actually mean resetting  which is a different operation in Git   then here are the steps    Do a hard reset in SourceTree to the bad commit by right-clicking on it and selecting Reset current branch to this commit  and selecting the hard reset option from the drop down   Click the Commit button  then Click on the checkbox at the bottom that says  Amend latest commit    Make the changes you want to the message  then click Commit again  Voila    Regarding this comment      if it s not possible because it s already pushed to Bitbucket  I would not mind creating a new repository and starting over    Does this mean that you re the only person working on the repo  This is important because it s not trivial to change the history of a repo  like by amending a commit  without causing problems for your collaborators   However  assuming that you re the only person working on the repo  then the next thing you would want to do is force push your changed history to the remote   Be aware  though  that because you did a hard reset to the faulty commit  then force pushing causes you to lose all work that come after it previously   If that s okay  then you might need to use the following command at the command line to do the force push  because I couldn t find an option to do it in SourceTree   git push remote-repo head -f   This also assumes that BitBucket will allow you to force push to a repo   You should really learn how to use Git from the command line anyways though  it ll make you more proficient in Git   ProTip  use msysgit and turn on Quick Edit mode on in the terminal properties  so that you can double click to highlight a line of text  right click to copy  and right click again to paste  It s pretty quick

User · Answer

On Version 1 9 6 1  For UnPushed commit    Click on previously committed description Click Commit icon  Enter new commit message  and choose  Ammend latest commit  from the Commit options dropdown  Commit your message

User · Answer

If the comment message includes non-English characters  using method provided by user456814  those characters will be replaced by question marks   tested under sourcetree Ver2 5 5 0   So I have to use the following method   CAUTION  if the commit has been pulled by other members  changes below might cause chaos for them   Step1  In the sourcetree main window  locate your repo tab  and click the  terminal  button to open the git command console   Step2    Situation A   target commit is the latest one   1  In the git command console  input         git commit --amend -m  new comment message    2  If the target commit has been pushed to remote  you have to push again by force  In the git command console  input    git push --force    Situation B   target commit is not the latest one   1  In the git command console  input   git rebase -i HEAD n   It is to squash the latest n commits  e g  if you want to edit the message before the last one  n is 2  This command will open a vi window  the first word of each line is  pick   and you change the  pick  to  reword  for the line you want to edit  Then  input  wq to save amp quit that vi window  Now  a new vi window will be open  in this window you input your new message  Also use  wq to save amp quit   2  If the target commit has been pushed to remote  you have to push again by force  In the git command console  input   git push --force    Finally  In the sourcetree main window  Press F5 to refresh

[git] Edit a commit message in SourceTree Windows (already pushed to remote)